Sylvester Stallone teams with Fox for Rambo: New Blood TV series

It has been almost eight years since Sylvester Stallone made his triumphant return to the character of John J. Rambo in the gore-soaked fourth film in the RAMBO franchise, a realization that is mildly shocking to me. Over the years, Stallone has floated around a few different story ideas for a fifth film that would pick up from the ending of RAMBO, which found the man of war returning to his childhood home in Arizona. One would have had Rambo crossing the border to take on drug cartels in Mexico, another idea was to adapt the James Byron Huggins novel Hunter into a film that would see Rambo branching out into sci-fi territory to take on a genetically altered beast. Screenwriter Sean Hood completed a draft of the script that was described as an UNFORGIVEN-esque "small town thriller". Earlier this year, Stallone said the sequel was going by the title RAMBO: LAST BLOOD and that it would be the character's version of NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN.

The LAST BLOOD plans have now been put on hold in favor of a new project called Rambo: New Blood. Rambo won't be returning to the big screen in the foreseeable future. Instead, he's heading to the small screen.

Fox has closed a deal with Entertainment One and Millennium Films to develop the TV show, which

pays homage to the films, exploring the complex relationship between Rambo and his son, J.R., an ex-Navy SEAL.

Rambo will be a key character in the series, but it's not clear whether Stallone, who will be involved as an executive producer, will reprise the role or hand it over to someone else.

The pilot episode has been written by Jeb Stuart, a familiar name from his work on DIE HARD, LEVIATHAN, THE FUGITIVE, and the Stallone film LOCK UP.

I'd much rather have gotten the LAST BLOOD movie, but I'll give this New Blood show a chance, even though I really don't like the idea of Rambo suddenly having an adult son to deal with.